Mandalas at the Summit of Awesome

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending Hello Craft’s Summit of Awesome in Portland, OR.

I was a panelist for the green business and creative community discussions, and also got to lead a mandala painting workshop. (In the picture above, I am the one standing up and wearing a blue top and big pink earrings which, by the way, I made during a jewelry making workshop with Susan Beal at the Summit of Awesome!)

(Superstar Mark Montano even hung out for a while - here he is with one of the students!)

The paints we used were Crafty Chica paints donated by the Crafty Chica Kathy Cano-Murillo herself, through the good people at ilovetocreate.com! (Thanks Kathy!)

You can see more of my photos from the Summit of Awesome in this flickr set.

Eye Pop Art on the cover of the Crafts Report!

It's June, and Eye Pop Art is on the cover of the June issue of the Crafts Report!

You can read the article online here. It's called "Make More Money with Social Media" by Megy Karydes, and it starts on page 10.

I haven't received a printed copy yet - do you get this magazine? Do you read it? I'm really curious to see if this will bring new business or other opportunities.

Whether it does or not, I'm pretty happy (thrilled, in fact!) about the great exposure for my business. It's kind of fun, too! Read the article to learn about my husband, "a punk rocker and songwriter," my psychedelic home and mandala tattoos, the help I've received from Trillium Artisans and my love of Etsy, the "huge lifesaver."

As the title of the article implies, it also talks about how I use social media to market my business. I mention that blogging takes a lot of time to come up with interesting content to write! Sorry, people who like to read blogs. It's true, I really do prefer the immediacy of twitter and facebook.

So, if you aren't already, why don't you check out my facebook page, and follow me on twitter?

Here's a couple screenshots of the awesome, colorful layout of this article. I love how they used the record player image for the lead-in, and then used lots of my colorful photos throughout two two-page spreads. It's total eye candy! I love my life!

To order any of the groovy items you see here, or make a custom request, please visit my shop at http://eyepopart.etsy.com. Thank you!

Paint a mandala at the Summit of Awesome!

I'm excited to announce that I'll be one of the guest speakers at the upcoming Hello Craft Summit of Awesome. It's the second annual summit and it's being held in Portland!

Please click this link for all the details including how to register and a full list of amazing speakers, including some of my heroes like Sister Diane, Susan Beal, and Rebecca Pearcy, fellow Trillium Artisans like Stephanie Weber, Lee Meredith, and Amanda Siska, and local genius friends from DIY Lounge, Crafty Wonderland, and Frock.

I'm also looking forward to meeting Danielle from Etsy, Kari Chapin (author of the new book The Handmade Marketplace), Jena from Modish, and, well, EVERYONE! It's really going to be an amazing event and I am so honored to be included. You can find the full schedule here.

I'll be speaking on two panels. "Green Craft: Sourcing Materials and Business Practices" with Becky Streipe and Stephanie Weber at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, June 16. I'll also be discussing "The Creative Community" with various local leaders including Cathy + Torie from Crafty Wonderland at 1:45 pm on Friday, June 18.

But the thing I'm most excited about (well, besides the fact that I get to attend the conference for free!) is the workshop I'll be leading - Mandalas on Vinyl Records! This will be happening on Friday, June 18 at 11 am.

I'm so pleased that they asked me to lead this workshop. It's going to be so much fun - and it will be so DIFFERENT from the majority of crafty make-and-take type workshops that you usually see. Most of these things don't usually involve painting. Painting seems to be a craft that kind of gets left out of the general crafty world - it's mostly glue, scissors, needle & thread, right? Well, if you take my workshop, you will actually get to do some painting with acrylics and it will be super fun. Maybe some crafters are a little apprehensive about trying this kind of craft because they've never picked up a paintbrush before...but just let me assure you that not only will it be easy, but you will be blown away by the beautiful design you will create.

Maybe it would be easier to explain this with examples. Here are a bunch of photos from mandala classes I've taught over the years with kids and adults alike. As you can see, they are all fabulous.



So if you are attending the summit, I hope you'll paint a mandala with me!

Makers Market

I have been accepted to sell my items on Makers Market, the new-ish curated marketplace from the creators of Make: Magazine and Boing Boing.

My store URL is: http://eyepopart.makersmarket.com.

So far I've just listed my vintage record cuffs.

It is pretty cool to list your stuff on a site where there are only five pages of listings for accessories (as opposed to Etsy where there are currently 17,162 pages of accessories). I also like that it has a built-in blogging platform and you are encouraged to post videos. (I kicked off my new blog with a link to my segment on "Look What I Did!")

Check out the site, it is really cool and filled with "wonderful science, tech, and artistic creations." Here are some of my faves!


Steampunk Ring - Green Glass Dragonfly by Earthfire Studios.
2 x 2 Building Block Ring by rubygirl (yay rubygirl!).

I.S.O Identifieted Stabil Object by 24 Carati.

Cell Division 1 by Artologica.
Chalkboard Journal by Moonlight Bindery.

"Minimod 2" Original Painting by Chris Reccardi.

Recycled Stewarts Grape Soda Drinking Glasses by Windy City Glass.
Twisted Nothing Data Wire Bracelets by Twisted Handmade.

Atari Punk Pedal by GetLoFi Experimental Sound.

Vintage Looking Computer by Old Time Computer.

To boldly go where no man has gone before by BeauJangles.

Grace Kelly's See Behind Rear Window Shades by Criminal Crafts (from Portland!).

Orange by Raw Art Letterpress.

Traffic Light...Light by Illuminated Bird.

Social and Sexual Science! Oddities Necklace by Rivkasmom (great steampunk shoppe!).

Crafty Booth and New Coasters!

So there I am at Crafty Wonderland this last weekend (May 1 & 2).

I have to admit I am really not thrilled with my display. I have been inspired by a lot of the other vendors at this huge, amazing show, and I now have lots of ideas for how to improve my booth for next time. For starters, I definitely am in need of some kind of backdrop. I've seen a bunch of creative ways to do this and have them simmering in my brain right now, among many other things that I have been putting on the list of "things to do after May 2" for the last month or so...ah, there is never really any rest, is there? But I love what I do and wouldn't have it any other way.I wasn't really up to my usual round of photo-taking of all my crafty friends - it was all just so big and overwhelming. I think I was a little intimidated. I did get the above photo of Megan, whose table was right next to mine, with Amy Stoner, who was next to her...

...and Stephanie of Pickle Things, who was right behind me.

Above you can see my exciting new product, Album Jacket Drink Coasters!

I made a ton of these for the show and really thought they would go like hotcakes...well, I sold a few sets but it wasn't what I expected.

(My old standby, Mandala Suncatchers, were a big hit, though.)

Each set of coasters contains nine 4" x 4" square coasters cut from a single album cover. You can put them together like a puzzle. I even wrote on the label which album/artist the package contains, and sorted them by musical genre (to the best of my ability - I'm afraid a lot of them ended up in the weird/random section!).

The coasters are fun but I think I am going to unpackage most of the ones I have left and re-work them a bit. I feel that it would be a good idea to coat them with something, perhaps a layer of clear contact paper, in order to improve their longevity and ask for a higher price point at the same time. So I'll probably be doing this before I list these on Etsy. Stay tuned!


Above you see Tangereen helping me out with these! I love my kids!

A few other highlights of the great crafty weekend:

• I got to meet Mark Montano.
• I spoke with the owner of Redux about the possibility of her carrying my cuffs at her store.
• I spoke with the owners of Oh Shiny! about possibly consigning my work with them.
• I scored a cute red Felted Flower Hair Clip from LeBrie (PenFelt), some rocking soap from Dennis Anderson, and a gorgeous feather headband made by the three cute little daughters of my friend Karina of Luna.
  
• I saw a lot of friends both new and old - vendors AND shoppers! Thanks to those of you who came by, it was great to see you!